New Voices to Fund Micro-Local News Projects
Get your applications ready. Some 20 micro-local journalism projects nationwide will be eligible to received grants of up to $17,000 in start-up seed money, according to a press release from the J-Lab at the University of Maryland. Its says in part:
The Institute for Interactive Journalism will launch a pioneering program to seed community news ventures around the country with a new $1 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Over the next two years, the New Voices project will help fund the start-up of 20 micro-local, news projects; support them with an educational Web site, in collaboration with the Poynter Institutes News University; and help foster their sustainability through small second-year grants.
Jan Schaffer, J-Lab executive director, says in the release:
Daily, we see citizens contributing in significant ways to news in the public interest. They are keeping mainstream journalists and public officials honest, as well as reporting community news that falls below the radar of daily news outlets. The New Voices project will enhance this capacity and help create exciting new opportunities for participating in civic life.
